


Give Me Mercy No More

by GhostOfStarman



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28700046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostOfStarman/pseuds/GhostOfStarman
Summary: When a prayer isn’t enough, Paula must face the ultimate choice between saving the world, or losing the one person she truly cares about.
Relationships: Paula Jones/Ness
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8





	Give Me Mercy No More

* * *

This was it. As they continued to walk down the darkened path, faintly illuminated by a faint shimmery mist, they edged closer to Giygas. All they had worked for, all the effort, blood, sweat, and tears, all of it was finally coming together. As if hearing her thoughts, Ness slows down, the slight scratching of his converse dragging across the floor in a nervous habit.

It wasn’t like anyone was complaining about the change in pace.

The still before the battle was always heavy, but this time, Paula could barely handle the thick atmosphere. Layers of fearful anticipation rippled through the air, the energy hissing as it met her inner psionic, almost like a cloud as it shrouded them.

The others could definitely feel it too. The erratic tapping of fingers against weaponry, the low hum of Poo muttering something in Dalaamian. If it was a prayer, Paula hoped that whatever god he was praying to would hear them, and be on their side today.

A few enemies loitered the cave, only one or two coming closer in an attempt to fight them. A couple bashes turning them into scrap metal made what was left of them think otherwise, and the rest of the enemies knew to stay away, opting to watch as they made their way closer to their leader.

The ominous echo of footsteps was all that was heard, as no one said a thing.

The path seemed to be shorter than it had looked, and suddenly Paula wondered if they had really walked faster than they intended to. The walk here seemed to have left no time for her to really get herself together, to compose herself in the face of death itself.

The halting of the footsteps that had turned into white noise was what caught her attention, and as she looked up, Paula realized, with dread making her stomach drop and her hands turn clammy, that inside this cave was the source of the evil, corruption in the form of malice and hate that acted like a cancer to the people it came in contact with, bending them to it’s will.

It made her feel sick.

•••

Their preparations had been in vain.

They had taken down Pokey, his relentless taunting prompting Paula to send her strongest, anger fueled PSI at him. It gave her no little satisfaction, when his expression shifted from one of arrogance to fear as she tore through his mech with the roar of her signature psionic fire, the fury of her thunderstorm, and harsh frost that would be enough to deteriorate someone’s limbs.

Accompanied by Poo raining hell from above, Pokey went down in a matter of seconds, unfortunately not before releasing the true form of Giygas upon them in spite.

Giygas was a different story.

Paula could not remember the last time she had felt fear as intense as this. She could not even begin to comprehend what Giygas really was, but when she looked at it, pure horror that pulled at her stomach like ice, making her heart pound insanely fast was what it was. Giygas made her legs suddenly turn into jelly, her mind forgetting how to work as her psychic energy refused to come out no matter how hard she pulled at it.

Perhaps Giygas was the physical form of fear itself.

Every time one of them fell, it was either Poo or Ness that came to their aid. The faint etches of weariness lay in the fine lines in both Ness and Poo’s faces, and after taking a brief glance at Jeff it was clear that he wasn’t faring much better. Paula could feel herself drawing upon a very limited supply of PSI now, she herself was reaching the end of her rope.

And yet, Giygas only seemed to grow stronger.

It was as if everything they threw at it was sucked in and absorbed. Like energy, it only seemed to make it stronger, as if their combined power was fuel for this entity. Whatever Giygas was, it had not overestimated them.

How cruel, she thought, we are only children, standing in the face of evil. How did it come to this? Why were we the ones chosen, burdened with great responsibility when we are so young?

Her thoughts are cut short when someone shoves her away, and the following scream still haunts her to this day.

“Ness!” She uses the last of her PSI on the glowing tendril of energy, and miraculously, it seems to work, and it backs away. Paula manages to catch him before he hits the ground.

He’s obviously drained, and his body is heaving with exertion, but he manages a grin, and Paula frowns as she feels the PSI energy leak from him.

“Stop that.” Ignoring how nice those green sparks had felt, Paula reached forward, gripping his hand firmly. “Save your strength, I’m alright.”

“He’s stronger than we thought.” She frowns as Ness rasps, slowly flipping his hand palms faced down, and she spots an open cut on his wrist.

“Yes, but we can’t stop now.” Paula shakes her head. She reaches up, and after chancing a glance up at the entity, who seems preoccupied with a sudden barrage of bottle rockets, and after cursing her inability to heal for what felt like millionth time, she unties her ribbon, blond hair cascading down freely as she wraps it around his wrist in an effort to stem the bleeding. “Our families are depending on us.

 _The world is depending on us_ , lies unspoken, it’s message clear.

Ness closes his eyes, as if in thought. When he opens them, Paula is startled to see a newfound fire in his eyes. It’s something she hasn’t seen since they first met, and back when he was her savior covered in blue paint. She ignores the fond pong in her stomach as she suddenly feels a cold wave of uneasiness.

“Paula.” The finality in his voice scares her, and immediately, she knows what he wants.

“No.” It’s the fact that he doesn’t seem to agree with her that scares her.

“Paula.”

“Whatever you’re planning to do, please don’t-“

“ _Paula_.” This time his voice seemed steadier, and Paula flinches. She closes her eyes, and the world around them fades and grows quiet. When she opens them again, it’s just her and the boy she fell so stupidly in love with.

“I can’t lose you.” She whispers, suddenly feeling vulnerable when their eyes meet, and that’s when she realizes that Ness wasn’t going to change his mind. When he reaches for her hand, she lets him take it, the sensation feeling like it was the first time he had taken her hand when he had freed her from that prison in Happy Happy.

“It’s okay.” His whisper feels comforting, and she tries to smile even though her lip is quivering, tears are starting to form at the edge of her eyes, and every inch of her wants to fall to her knees and beg him not to.

So she helps him up, and they limp over to the others. Jeff and Poo are putting up a good fight, and in that moment, Paula feels a sense of pride in their small but strong team. _Look at how far we have come, where we started, and where we are now_ , she wants to say, but there’s no time.

There’s just really no more time left for them.

“Ness, Paula.” Jeff acknowledges, barely taking his eyes away from his angle. It looks a little awkward, but the rockets firing from the bazooka he was holding hit Giygas dead on everytime.

“I have an idea. This isn’t working.” Immediately, Jeff nods in agreement. Paula isn’t surprised, Jeff was the genius after all.

“It’s not.” He fires another rocket. Above them, an unearthly howl comes from the being as Poo slashes at the tendril of darkness surrounding them with his blade, completely out of PSI.

“It needs a vessel. One strong enough to withhold it.” Jeff states plainly, and Paula winces at how matter of fact he was. Jeff was never the emotional type, and could be rather blunt about things. It’s only when he turns completely towards them that Paula sees the thinning of his lips, and the worried but intent way he looked at Ness behind his glasses.

“Yes it does. We have one. Paula can seal him away once he’s in it.”

There’s a brief pause, and Paula manages to catch the genius’s glance for a moment before he nods.

It was full of regret.

“Ness,” Jeff hesitates, the battle seemingly forgotten as he drops his equipment. His expression is stoic as he takes a long look at Ness. “You’re a good man.”

Jeff was also too perceptive for his own good.

“And you, Jeff. It was a pleasure meeting you.” Ness holds out his hand, that familiar grin that had once made Paula’s heart race, and is now making it hurt.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to.” Jeff turns away, his expression unreadable. “Go.”

With that, Ness pulls his hand away, a determined expression on his face as he nods. With a final look at Jeff, whose face was turned away, Paula continues after him.

They limp past Poo, who only glances at them to understand what was going on. He gives a small bow towards Ness, thanks him for his guidance, and gives Paula a sympathetic look. Paula wants to hit him for doing that, anger bubbling up in her stomach at how unfair this was.

Then they were standing in front of Giygas. The entity seemed to be waiting, as if knowing something was about to happen. Paula glares at it, feeling hot tears poke her eyes. It was going to take everything from her.

“Paula.” She rips her gaze away and her blue eyes meet determined but gentle violet ones.

“It’s alright,” He cups her cheek as she searches his eyes for anything, silently pleading with him to turn back, that there was another way. “Please.”

When she feels him slip his hands away, her heart jumps, and with a cry she grabs him, pulling him towards her. He lets out a startled sound, but her crying was louder.

“You’re so, so stupid.” She sobs, feeling every emotion, every piece of her heart crash and shatter into a million pieces, and then melting into the tears that were falling down her cheeks. “But so unbelievably selfless.”

She takes a step back, wiping her tears away with a hand. She gives him a weak smile, not even caring about how she must’ve looked, disheveled and messy.

“Remember that time we went to the beach in Summers? You got so high off magic cake that we had to drag you off and sleep it off? Maybe we saved you then, but to think that you’re the one saving us all now? It’s so unbelievably crazy and just so _Ness_ , I just don’t know _what_ to think.” She gives a bitter laugh, but a genuine smile as she looks at him again.

“I’m so proud of you. You’re the strongest person I know. Don’t ever stop fighting, Ness.” She grabs his hand once more, and her eyes search his almost desperately before she leans forward, and presses a tender kiss against his cheek.

“Please don’t forget about me, wherever you go. I’ll see you again, I know it.”

With that, she takes a step back and he lets go of her hand, the remains of her heart being crushed into fine powder at the tender look on his face.

It takes everything she has to wave when he turns back a few meters in, and to smile, because that’s what she knew he would want to see when he was to leave.

Paula let herself close her eyes. All of a sudden she could feel the warmth of a summer sun, and the distant laughter of two teenagers having fun filled her ears as she opened her eyes and just looked at him.

There was nothing else she could do besides stare at him, taking every small feature to heart, drinking in the sight of him, because she knew it would be the last time she saw that handsome face. Tears betrayed her as he gave her one of those genuine smiles, reserved just for her, before turning away for the last time.

Paula felt her heart break with each step he took.

•••

It’s only when she finishes her prayer, filled with every ounce of love she had left, that she sinks to the ground and looks up. The sky is clear, but her heart is not when she looks around and the boy she would do anything for was not anywhere to be found.

“Paula!”

She felt her knees give in, and as she knelt on the ground, she cried for someone who didn’t deserve to be lost.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I'm back with another Earthbound fic, I'm not sure if it's going to be the last. But wow, am I on a roll with these angsty fics, damn.
> 
> I don't have much to say but thank you for everything, Earthbound fandom. We are small, but a close knit fandom, so we mostly know each other. I loved this fandom so much, it felt so warm and safe, and I'm so glad I decided to start writing for this fandom.
> 
> I'm not sure if this will be my last Earthbound fic, I really want to write more but I'm not sure if I will have the motivation to, now that my fandom listing has changed. So I just want to thank my Earthbound readers and readers in general for everything.
> 
> Note:  
> I know, I know, they are in robot form during the final battle, but the thought of metallic robot tears isn't as sad as actual ones. Canon divergence? Plot convenience? You came to the right place.


End file.
